Amy’s rehab: no, no, no, yes?

Last week’s JC report that Amy Winehouse planned to fly to Israel for rehab was followed up by papers around the world. Eliezer Cohen, chairman of the Israel Anti-Drug Administration, told us that Winehouse’s representatives “spoke to a renowned institution and an Israeli professor” who was expecting her arrival within weeks .

More..

Giraffe sticks its neck out

Chicago Rib Shack owner Jon Yantin received a roasting from rivals Giraffe after innocently suggesting on our Business page that his place, unlike Giraffe, was not a children’s restaurant. Giraffe director Andrew Jacobs so overreacted that he sent in his PRs demanding corrections, and even prevailed on Yantin to apologise and send the JC a letter stating that Giraffe was actually a “family restaurant”.

More..

Tonge: Beware the slur

If you wish to lobby Parliamentarians on Israel/Palestine, be wary of “the slur of antisemitism”.

So said Baroness Jenny Tonge in a presentation reported by the Israeli Committee Against House Demol-itions’s May newsletter.

Tonge claimed that MPs were terrified of being accused of antisemitism. Many Labour MPs were supporters of Israel, and the Board of Deputies used its influence wherever it sees it as necessary, she said. 

More..

Dirt, noise, 36-hour shifts...I love my job!

It’s messy, grubby work helping pregnant women through the contractions. But for Lauren Mishcon, being a ‘doula’ sure beats nine-to-five.

Lauren Mishcon has no idea when she will next be required to work. It could be over the weekend, perhaps on Monday morning, or maybe not for a week or two. When she is called upon, it may be for a few hours, or it could be a marathon 36-hour shift.Mishcon is a birth doula. Her job is to accompany women through the process of giving birth, providing comfort, support and advice.

More..

Leonard Cohen's funny. No joke

Front Row: Leonard Cohen
Radio 4, May 26

It is strange that Leonard Cohen has a reputation for being miserable when, as this interview with Mark Lawson clearly demonstrated, he is a very funny guy. Anyone who is familiar with the work of the legendary Canadian poet/singer/artist will also know that he is also gifted and enormously interesting.

More..

I'm happy to be mummy's boy

William Sutcliffe is a novelist concerned to celebrate an important relationship

William Sutcliffe is not anticipating a call from the compilers of the Man Booker Prize shortlist for his new novel, Whatever Makes You Happy (Bloomsbury £10.99). “If you are writing about young people, you are disqualified from every literary prize,” Sutcliffe claims. “You are also disqualified if you are funny, use lots of dialogue, or write about contemporary Britain — everything I tend to do.”

More..

Police arrest crime’s Mr Wig

Police in the Israeli town of Bnei Brak this week apprehended a 20-year-old man who allegedly stole 50 sheitels.

This was no hair-brained scheme. The man, a yeshivah student, could have expected to sell the wigs for £250 each .

However, his scheme was, er, uncovered  when the man hid his stash in the communal storeroom at his block of flats where a neighbour discovered them and reported him to the police.

The man was thought to be acting alone and police are not thought to be looking for the bigwig behind the operation.

More..

I was fighting in 1968 - for chocolate biscuits

As you are probably now aware, this year is the 40th anniversary of the cataclysmic events of 1968. There has barely been a newspaper or periodical which has not run lengthy articles about the revolutions and protests of that year. Up to this point I have veered away from telling the story of my part in the events as they unfolded, but seeing as everybody else is telling tales of demonstrations and riots, I don’t see why I should be left out. So here is my untold story of 1968.

More..

A family reunion you’ll relate to

True Stories: The Reunion
More4, Tuesday, May 20

As Tolstoy might well have written, had he thought of it, families everywhere are all very different — but family reunions are all pretty much the same.

More..

How Michael Jackson’s rabbi moved on to Oprah

Minister Shmuley Boteach left Britain nine years ago amid controversy. He talks about embracing fame, TV Judaism and his London appointment with a leading evangelical

Shmuley Boteach is struggling with his chicken kebab. He is sitting outside Reuben’s restaurant in Central London, on a flying visit to Britain — his first in over two years. Such is the velocity of his answers that the special of the day remains largely untouched on his plate. In the short breaks in conversation, he launches into his food like a man possessed, but to no great avail.

More..

Dawkins shops for atheism

Author Richard Dawkins, who has become the patron saint of atheists since his book The God Delusion was published, has revealed that he bid for a letter by Albert Einstein in which the latter described Judaism as “childish superstition”.

Dawkins could not match the £170,000 the letter fetched at auction in London last week. Maybe there is a God after all.

More..

Goering? What a nice chap

The yacht of leading Nazi Hermann Goering has gone on sale for £151,000 on a Nazi memorabilia website.

More..

George Bush can ride a bike

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has given President George W Bush a bicycle. The official Israeli explanation for the gift is that the bike was given because the President’s knees are (like his brain) a little knackered and he can’t go jogging any more.

However, given the fact that Bush has a history of falling off bicycles (the last time was in Scotland three years ago), could this actually be a sophisticated and very subtle assassination attempt?

More..

She forgave a terrorist

Storyville: My Israel
BBC4, Wednesday, May 14

Storyville: Flipping Out — Israel’s Drug Generation

BBC4, Thursday, May 15

BBC4’s Storyville strand celebrated Israel’ s 60th birthday with a season of films analysing different aspects of Israeli life.

More..

Help! It's the corpsemites

Here’s one more thing to worry about. Richard Morgan’s new fantasy novel, The Steel Remains, features hideous monsters called corpsemites who attack the book’s hero Ringil. The monsters’ position on Jews is not made clear — after all, you don’t meet many Jewish characters in the sword-and-sorcery genre — but the name doesn’t suggest anything good.

And it certainly has the bloggers exercised. One post on the punkadiddle website points out that the presence of the corpsemites “wouldn’t endear the book to the Jewish Chronicle”.

More..

Israelis in happiness shock

Israel is the world’s happiest country — official. Or maybe should that be semi-official.

The Thai-based English language newspaper, the Asia Times, ran a column this week claiming that Israelis love life and hate death more than any other nation.

The evidence for this comes not from interviews with Israelis, which would no doubt produce evidence to the contrary, but rather by plotting the fertility rate versus the suicide rate of 35 industrialised countries. Israel stands alone in loving life and hating death.

More..

Sir Alan is our number one

The JC’s Power 100 of the most influential Jews in the country has sparked off plenty of debate in the media — mainly about how we could have possibly have fired (or rather failed to hire) Sir Alan Sugar.

For the record, Sir Alan — who is certainly Jewish and influential — did not make the list because, according to one of the judges, Ben Rich, although he is a generous philanthropist for Jewish causes, “he does not pursue a specific agenda”.

More..

Petrol prices bring out the Masai warrior in me

Last weekend I pulled into the garage forecourt and filled up my car with petrol. This is usually a fairly unmemorable activity and would have been this time had I not looked at the amount the garage was charging me for my fuel. I’m not going to tell you exactly how much I paid but I can divulge that both of my children have now been enrolled in chimney-sweep school to help with the bills.

More..

Subsistence farming, North Circular-style

A genius thought occurred to me a few months ago (actually it occurred to my wife, but seeing as I am the columnist, we will pretend it occurred to me).

I (unlike my children ) like vegetables. Also I have quite a large garden which is home only to a few daffodils, a tulip or two and quite a large number of squirrels.

More..

Sir Alan would fire them

Writers at The Daily Record in Glasgow slightly misunderstood our Sir Alan Sugar story last week.

Sir Alan told the JC that he was tempted to make a k’nackers special, to pit all those “know-it-all” critics in the media against his apprentices in the sure knowledge that the actual apprentices would win.

More..